Read Before Tomorrowland for Free Online Page A

heard this voice a dozen times in his
life. Once when he shoplifted a candy bar when he was six, and the all the other times when he couldn’t escape her political arguments with Uncle Randy. Uncle Randy was a “sociopathic
fascist,” to use her words, but otherwise a nice guy.
    “What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?” Clara said this again after Beth responded with nothing but a blood-drained face and a slack jaw. Even Flash and Buck weren’t sure what to
make of Clara, and they began inching away from her and Lee, then moving quickly into the auditorium behind Beth.
    “Mom, look! I think I see H.G. Wells!” The lie was enough to get Clara to shut down the death stare with which she was now melting BETH! into a teary-eyed pool of confusion. As Clara
craned her neck with restored excitement, Lee picked up their registration packets and name tags and pushed her toward the auditorium while mouthing a sincere “I AM SO SORRY” to a
pretty young woman that he knew would never again give him the time of day.
    “Where is he? Where did you see H.G. Wells?”
    “I didn’t see him.”
    “But you said—”
    “I lied.”
    She stopped and stared him down. “You lied?! Lee Lucas Brackett, you know how I feel about lying—”
    “Yes. It’s the same way I feel about you biting the head off some girl whose only sin is a degree of ignorance about a comic book icon which, in this case, and with all due respect,
Mom, fell
completely
within socially acceptable parameters.”
    “She called us all geeks! Do you know how dismissive and condescending that it is?! About as dismissive and condescending as you’re talking to me now!”
    “No she didn’t! She said that all of this was Greek to her.
Greek.
As in: ‘All this geek stuff is a foreign language to me.’”
    “Don’t you use that word with me, too!”
    “Mom. You use that word to describe yourself and all your friends!”
    “But that’s different. We can use that word, but our enemies can’t.”
    “Enemies?! Wait. How am I your enemy?!”
    Lee thought he could hear the gears in her head whirring as it tried to formulate a response. As she mulled, she held him with a blazing stare, and in that moment, Lee allowed himself to
consider that, yes, brain cancer
had
done a number on his mom, and in ways the doctors said could be impossible to anticipate.
Don’t be too surprised if she hears things, sees
things, smell things that are not there.
Perhaps Lee just experienced an example of this. Perhaps not. He only knew that his mother’s mind must sometimes be a terrifying place, and his
heart broke for her all over again.
    He was about to say he was sorry when the fire in her eyes extinguished. Softness returned, and so did her smile. “Bygones,” she said, and grabbed his arm tight. “Would you do
me the honor of escorting me inside?”
    “You’re incredible,” Lee said with a laugh.
    “I know,” she said.
“Avante!”
    Arm in arm, they walked into the auditorium. It reminded Lee of the basement headquarters of his mom’s reading club, except larger, better organized, and with less mildew. The space was
painted and accented to evoke an Arabian palace, though the details were obscured by the convention décor. A banner hung across the balcony: THE FIRST WORLD SCIENCE FICTION
CONVENTION . The walls were plastered with poster-sized reproductions of several different science fiction magazines like
Thrilling Wonder Stories
,
Startling Stories
, and
Amazing Stories
. Images of rampaging robots, green-skinned aliens, men in space suits, women in capes, kids in jet packs, and many gleaming rocket ships looked down upon a space crowded with
several rows of exhibitors hawking books, comic books, magazines, and toys. Dozens of people milled about. Some were in costume. Most were not. Conversation echoed throughout the hall. Excitable.
Passionate. Full of laughter. The air smelled of paper, coffee breath, and sweat.
    “My people,”
whispered Clara.
    She